Irrigation system and pond

I have about a 1500 gallon koi/goldfish pond in my back yard. I also have a submersible well hooked to my irrigation system. If it matters the well is about 45' deep and puts out about 36 GPM of water.

Due to the volume of water and the size of my yard, I have an extra zone on my irrigation system. I am trying to decide on a good way to top the pond off or fill it if the water level drops too much. Problem is I don't want to spend hundreds of $$ to accomplish this.

My current thought is running the extra zonbbbbbbbbbbbe to the edge of my pond with 1" poly, then coming up with PVC and installing a hose bib, attaching a short run of garden hose or something and running it into the pond. Then setting this zone to come on a few minutes several times a day. Granted this won't solve the issue of the pond developing an issue with a loosing water, but it would insure it was full several times a day.

*There have been times when a water feature has messed up and run the water level down to that pumps level and of course it always happens overnight or when away from the house for hours.

The questions I have are what will this do to my fish? Obviously water temp of 50* being introduced to pond of ~80* could shock fish, but if done dailey, I'm guessing they'd adapt to a few inches of fresh/cold water. What will this likely do to the balance of the water? Muck it up or should it learn to adapt? Also, being as I pump so much volume and pressure, would it be wise to reduce the pressure at the bib, so that I could run the pump for longer without forcing so much pressure out? Will I need an anti siphon device if I run the hose into the water?

Any other ideas? I've seen floats that stops the flow when full, but obviously, I don't want to run the pump with no water flow, unless I tied the float into the main line so that any time the well kicks on it would have a chance to fill the pond, which is another thought!

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I would tie into your house main supply (not on a timer) and run a 3/4" hose bib near the pond. Tee off of the bib to an auto fill valve with a check valve to fill the pond. Not knowing where you are, take precautions about freezing.
Are you loosing water to evaporation or is the pond leaking? How much water do you have to add to the pond? How is the water quality of your well vs the established ecosystem?

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I would tie into your house main supply (not on a timer) and run a 3/4" hose bib near the pond. Tee off of the bib to an auto fill valve with a check valve to fill the pond. Not knowing where you are, take precautions about freezing.
Are you loosing water to evaporation or is the pond leaking? How much water do you have to add to the pond? How is the water quality of your well vs the established ecosystem?

The house is on city water and I don't really want to introduce the chlorinated water, when I can't directly control it.

I loose a little, not much to evaporation. Other than that it stays pretty good, no leaks, EXCEPT, when things get screwed up. Basically, I have several pumps doing different things and sometimes due to weather - wind or leaves, or just Murphy, things get screwed up with the water flowing from those pumps and the water gets pumped/blown out of the pond.

So without going into tons of details, there is an occassion when I am not around to control things that I loose vast amounts of water and I need to find a way to combat that so I don't burn up my pumps.

Not real sure of water quality of well, never had it tested, but so far what I have put in hasn't hurt the fish and just a few weeks ago I lost all fish due to a hail storm and so I drained and cleaned the entire pond and filled 100% with well water. I waited about a week and introduced some new fish, so far so good!

You provided a flow rate which is very high for residential irrigation systems. You did not mention at what pressure you are pumping the 36GPM? And this is the flow rate at the pump head or more or less constant along the pipe runs?

In any event, you would probably want to regulate pressure (and flow rate for that matter) close to the source and not at a down line hose bib. You just run the risk of over pressurizing the entire line to the bib, sprinkler valves, sprinkler heads or whatever if you regulate only at that point of water delivery.

As for filling the pond with the other irrigation zone? I guess but seems like you would still want some level control valve actually confirming to add water. I personally would not want the irrigation timer in the way but I guess it will not hurt anything. You will have to monitor it constantly though to make sure it comes on often enough which defeats the automation goal you have in mind?

You should of course monitor water chemistry but you must do this now with whatever method you use when adding large amounts of water? I agree that since you have a working pump situation you are better off using it for irrigation and the pond than chlorinated and treated domestic water supply water.

As for water temp and shocking the fish? Koi and other Karp are rather hearty and it is not like the cool water will stay that way for long. To be sure though, check with ag extension, a local koi supplier or chapter of a koi club.

sdsester,
I actually don't know the pressure, but do plan on adding a gauge inline so I can monitor it. I think it would be very helpful in knowing what is going on with the pump, since it is underground. I'd think it'd let me know if it's sucking up any debri, wearing out, etc. I also am thinking of adding a pressure reliefe valve at some point, just in case the pump gets turned on and a zone happens to stay closed for some reason. In any case, I'll post those when/if I get around to putting the gauge on.

As for the pond, to be honest, I don't pay much attention to water balance and I've had excellent luck maintaining a healthy environment for years. Except for a recent hail storm that knocked out all of my fish (about 40) I have rarely lost a fish, so I tend to think if it isn't broken why fix! That being said, I do pay close attention to clarity and keep the pond over circulated and try not to use chemicals as I have a bio filter and only add beneficial bacteria as needed if algea starts to grow.

Right now I have a zone set to pump water into the pond every morning for 2minutes and in the last few weeks since setting this up, my fish are doing great and the water is crystal clear. It's still not as automated as I'd like but for now it seems to be working! Thanks for all the replies.